The present invention relates generally to grills used in commercial establishments and domestically, and more particularly, to modular heating units that may be replaced for such grills and modular heating units that have edge heat weighting.
Cooking grills used in high volume food outlets generally comprise a top plate having an upper surface to cook food. As shown in FIG. 1, a tubular heating unit 12 is installed beneath a grill plate 10. In actuality, and as shown in FIG. 2, a series of tubular heating units are installed in a side-by-side configuration on the underside of plate 10. The heating units are mounted between the top plate and a bottom plate 14. A layer 16 of a wool-type insulation material is held in place on the underside of plate 14 by yet a third plate 18. This entire assembly is held together by a plurality of spaced bolts 20 which are sufficiently long so to extend through all of the plates. Fasteners 22 are then used to complete the assembly.
There are a number of problems with this construction. First is the efficiency of the grill to cook food. For example, in high volume cooking, it is expected that the grill will heat a frozen hamburger patty in approximately 35 seconds from the time the patty is placed on the grill. When the grill is at temperature, this will occur. However, when the grill is first turned on, the grill takes excessive time to reach an adequate temperature to cook the patty. Second, the temperature profile across the heating area of the grill is non-uniform. In the area adjacent the location of tubular heating elements there is a hot spot. Between adjacent sections of the heating element, there is a substantial fall off in temperature. As a result, food placed on a portion of the grill over a heating element cooks faster than food placed on other parts of the grill.
In addition to the effects on cooking, if a heating element fails, there is a substantial amount of downtime required in order to replace the failed unit. The grill must be disassembled, the unit replaced, and then the grill reassembled before being used again for cooking. If this can be done during normal maintenance periods, there may be little or no impact on food service. If, however, replacement must be made during normal business hours, service will be greatly impaired.
To overcome one or more of the problems set forth above, the co-pending, commonly assigned, application Ser. No. 09/710,563 entitled xe2x80x9cModular Radiant Heater Units for Use in Grills and the Likexe2x80x9d by Taylor et al., discloses modular radiant heater units for grills. As described in that application, there may be situations where it is desirable to modify the layout of the heater element to provide alternative heat distributions. For example, there may be sections of a grill plate that extend beyond the modular heater unit and exposed to the ambient environment. This may cause certain sections to be slightly lower in temperature than other sections. To increase the cooking surface of such a grill plate, the present invention is directed to a heater element layout that compensates for outer edge sections of the grill plate that may extend beyond the radiant heater unit.
To that end, the present invention includes a modular heating unit for a grill. The grill has a grill plate supported on a support base. The grill plate has a bottom surface and a top surface. The modular heating unit is mounted to the bottom surface of the grill plate and has at least four side edges. The modular heating unit has a pan, an insulation layer and a heating element. The pan has a generally flat base and a circumferential sidewall. The insulation layer has an insulation base and a circumferential sidewall. The heating element is supported on the insulation base to heat the grill plate and is positioned in a spaced apart relationship to the bottom surface of the grill plate. The modular heating unit is divided into a center section and two side sections. The side sections are adjacent to two side edges of the modular heating unit. The heating element is contoured to provide more heat to at least one of the side sections than the center section of the heating unit.
The modular heating unit may further include a shielding block and a temperature sensor. The shielding block is positioned between the bottom surface of the grill plate and a top surface of the insulation base. The temperature sensor extends through a hole in the flat base of the pan and a hole in the shielding block. The temperature sensor is used to measure the temperature of the grill plate.
The modular heating unit may also be rectangular. In such an embodiment, the side sections of the modular heating unit that have added heat are adjacent to the two shorter edges of the modular heating unit.
In another embodiment, the present invention includes a grill that has a grill plate and a plurality of modular heating units. The grill plate has a top surface to cook food and a bottom surface. The plurality of modular heating units are mounted to the bottom surface of the grill plate and each modular heating unit has a plurality of side edges. Each modular heating unit has a pan, an insulation layer and a heating element. The modular heating unit is divided into a center section and two side sections. The two side sections are adjacent to at least two of the side edges of the heating unit. The heating element is contoured to provide more heat to at least one of the two side sections than the center section.
The above summary of the present invention is not intended to represent each embodiment, or every aspect of the present invention. This is the purpose of the figures and detailed description that follows.